Zhengkun Yu

Transition metal-catalyzed substitution of alcohols by N-nucleophiles (or N-alkylation of amines and related compounds with alcohols) avoids the use of alkylating agents by means of borrowing hydrogen (BH) activation of the alcohol substrates. Water is produced as the only by-product, which makes the "BH" processes atom-economic and environmentally benign. Diverse types of homogeneous organometallic and heterogeneous transition metal catalysts, and substrates such as N-nucleophiles including amines, amides, sulfonamides and ammonia, and various alcohols, can be used for this purpose, demonstrating the promising potential of "BH" processes to replace the procedures using traditional alkylating agents in pharmaceutical and chemical industries. Borrowing hydrogen activation of alcohols for C-N bond formation has recently been paid more and more attention, and a lot of new and novel procedures and examples have been documented. This critical review summarizes the recent advances in "BH" substitution of alcohols by N-nucleophiles since 2009. "Semi-BH" N-alkylation processes with or without an external hydrogen acceptor are also briefly presented. Suitable discussion of the "BH" strategy provides new principles for establishing green processes to replace the relevant traditional synthetic methods for C-N bond formation.

C-S bond activation, cleavage and transformations by means of transition metal compounds have recently become more and more important in the petroleum industry and synthetic chemistry. Homogeneous transition metal compounds have been investigated in order to provide the fundamental insight into the C-S bond cleavage in problematic organosulfur compounds such as thiophene, benzo- and dibenzothiophene derivatives. Rendering transition-metal mediated reactions with organosulfur compounds catalytic may provide promising routes to deep hydrodesulfurization of petroleum feedstocks, and offer potentially useful synthetic protocols for cross-couplings and biomimetic organic synthesis. During the last few decades increasing work was documented on C-S bond activation and transformations by means of transition metal compounds. This review summarizes the recent advances in C-S bond cleavage via the insertion of transition metals into the inert C-S bonds of these problematic organosulfur compounds, and transition-metal mediated C-S bond transformations via C-S activation through cross-couplings of thioesters, ketene dithioacetals, sulfonyl chlorides, and other diverse organosulfur compounds.

Transition-metal-catalyzed C-alkylation of ketones and secondary alcohols, with alcohols, avoids use of organometallic or environmentally unfriendly alkylating agents by means of borrowing hydrogen (BH) or hydrogen autotransfer (HA) activation of the alcohol substrates. Water is formed as the only by-product, thus making the BH process atom-economical and environmentally benign. Diverse homogeneous and heterogeneous transition-metal catalysts, ketones, and alcohols can be used for this transformation, thus rendering the BH process promising for replacing those procedures that use traditional alkylating agents. This Minireview summarizes the advances during the last five years in transition-metal-catalyzed BH α-alkylation of ketones, and β-alkylation of secondary alcohols with alcohols. A discussion on the application of the BH strategy for C-C bond formation is included.

Carbon-sulfur bond cross-coupling has become more and more attractive as an alternative protocol to establish carbon-carbon and carbon-heteroatom bonds. Diverse transformations through transition-metal-catalyzed C-S bond activation and cleavage have recently been developed. This review summarizes the advances in transition-metal-catalyzed cross-coupling via carbon-sulfur bond activation and cleavage since late 2012 as an update of the critical review on the same topic published in early 2013 (Chem. Soc. Rev., 2013, 42, 599-621), which is presented by the categories of organosulfur compounds, that is, thioesters, thioethers including heteroaryl, aryl, vinyl, alkyl, and alkynyl sulfides, ketene dithioacetals, sulfoxides including DMSO, sulfones, sulfonyl chlorides, sulfinates, thiocyanates, sulfonium salts, sulfonyl hydrazides, sulfonates, thiophene-based compounds, and C[double bond, length as m-dash]S functionality-bearing compounds such as thioureas, thioamides, and carbon disulfide, as well as the mechanistic insights. An overview of C-S bond cleavage reactions with stoichiometric transition-metal reagents is briefly given. Theoretical studies on the reactivity of carbon-sulfur bonds by DFT calculations are also discussed.

)-H, and alkynyl C(sp)-H, as well as asymmetric carbene insertion to C-H bonds, and more coverage will be given to the recent work. Due to the rapid development of the C-H functionalization area, future directions in this topic are also discussed. This review will give the authors an overview of carbene insertion chemistry in C-H functionalization with focus on the catalytic systems and synthetic applications in C-C bond formation.